Profound Implications:

“It is not the strength of your faith 

 but the object of your faith 

 that actually saves you.” 

- Timothy J. Keller

Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road

  
FREE AUDIO BOOK!!!

During this August ChristianAudio.com is giving away the audio book Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller.
 

Tim Keller: Counterfeit Gods

Find out more at www.counterfeitgods.com.

Keller: The Reason For God

For more info check out TheReasonForGod.com

"The Threat of Grace"

Here are a few paragraphs that were highlighted in my copy of Keller's book, The Reason For God. These paragraphs fall under Keller's heading, "The Threat of Grace":

Some years ago I met with a woman who began coming to church at Redeemer. She said that she had gone to church growing up and had never before heard a distinction drawn between the gospel and religion. She had always heard that God accepts us only if we are good enough. She said that the new message was scary. I asked her why it was scary, and she replied:

"If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with "rights" - I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by sheer grace - then there's nothing he cannot ask of me."

She understood the dynamic of grace and gratitude. If when you have lost all fear of punishment you also lose all incentive to live a good, unselfish life, then the only incentive you ever had to live a decent life was fear. This woman could see immediately that the wonderful-beyond-belief teaching of salvation by sheer grace had an edge to it. She knew that if she was a sinner saved by grace, she was (if anything) more subject to the sovereign Lordship of God. She knew that if Jesus really had done all this for her, she would not be her own. She would joyfully, gratefully belong to Jesus, who provided all this for her at infinite cost to himself.

From the outside that might sound coercive, like a grinding obligation. From the inside the motivation is all joy. Think of what happens when you fall in love. Your love makes you eager for acceptance from the beloved. You ask, "Do you want to go out?" or maybe even, "Will you marry me?" What happens when the answer is "Yes"? Do you say, "Great! I'm in! Now I can act any way I want"? Of course not. No you don't even wait for the object of your affection to directly ask you do do something for them. You anticipate whatever pleases and delights them. There's no coercion or sense of obligation, yet your behavior has been radically changed by the mind and heart of the person you love.

- Tim Keller, The Reason For God, pg. 182-183

An Apt Answer

"For many years after each of the morning and evening services I remained in the auditorium for another hour to field questions. Hundreds of people stayed for the give-and-take discussions. One of the most frequent statements I heard was that "Every person has the right to define right and wrong for him- or herself." I always responded to the speakers by asking, "Is there anyone in the world right now doing things you believe they should stop doing no matter what they personally believe about the correctness of their behavior?" They would invariably say, "Yes, of course." Then I would ask, "Doesn't that mean that you do believe there is some kind of moral reality that is 'there' that is not defined by us, that must be abided by regardless of what a person feels or thinks?" Almost always, the response to that question was silence, either a thoughtful or a grumpy one."

- Tim Keller, The Reason for God, pg. 47


To make an apt answer is a joy to a man,
and a word in season, how good it is!
- Proverbs 15:23

Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
- Proverbs 26:5

Reasoning in the Areopagus

"Skeptics believe that any exclusive claims to a superior knowledge of spiritual reality cannot be true. But this objection is itself a religious belief. It assumes God is unknowable, or that God is loving but not wrathful, or that God is an impersonal force rather than a person who speaks in Scripture. All of these are unprovable faith assumptions. In addition, their proponents believe they have a superior way to view things. They believe the world would be a better place if everyone dropped the traditional religions' views of God and truth and adopted theirs. Therefore, their view is also an "exclusive" claim about the nature of spiritual reality. If all such views are to be discouraged, this one should be as well. If it is not narrow to hold this view, then there is nothing inherently narrow about holding to traditional religious beliefs."

- Tim Keller, The Reason For God, pg. 12

I've just finished the intro and the first chapter of this book. The introduction may possibly be the most attention grabbing introduction that I have ever read. This book is Keller's effort at engaging in Paul's task of reasoning in the Areopagus. A friend recently recommended this book as the most important book he read last year. After reading the introduction and the first chapter I can see why.

Here is a great example (mp3) of Keller also doing this in his preaching.